Sabanto Raises $17M Series A To Drive Autonomy Into Agriculture

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Swarming farm autonomy company Sabanto, Inc. today announced it has closed an oversubscribed $17M Series A funding round led by leading agtech venture firm Fulcrum Global Capital, with participation from DCVC Bio, Hico Capital, Yara Growth Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Johnsonville Ventures, and Trimble Ventures. John Peryam, co-founder and partner at Fulcrum, joins Sabanto’s board of directors.

“We started Sabanto with our sights set on fixing the lack of labor and resetting the out-of-control capital expenses in agricultural machinery. We see a future of smarter, smaller, lighter, less expensive, and more sustainable swarms of autonomous equipment, substituting horsepower and weight for time,” said Craig Rupp, founder and CEO of Sabanto. “We’ve assembled a team of actual ag-experienced engineers and scientists, working alongside real farmers, proving this isn’t just a thought exercise.”

Sabanto has proven its ability to automate a variety of row crop field operations over significant acres throughout the Midwest. Leveraging a fleet of smaller 60 and 90 HP tractors, the company has autonomously tilled, planted, seeded, weeded, applied, and mowed across Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Texas. The company’s advanced mission control platform has been pivotal in deploying multiple systems for multiple days of non-stop operation, pushing the concept to the limit by planting over 750 acres of corn and soybeans in one season with a single 60 HP tractor.

“Finally, a company is solving our labor problems and taking us in the other direction. We’re witnessing a huge snowball effect, and it’s all because of the size of the machinery. It’s more expensive. It’s harder to operate. It’s harder to resell. Blah, blah, blah. It’s the hamster wheel from hell,” exclaimed JJ Granstrom, owner of Granstrom Farms and customer of Sabanto.

“Sabanto combines a talented and experienced team with a differentiated and well-developed technology stack, focused on an agriculture industry experiencing significant global tailwinds towards autonomy,” said John Peryam, co-founder and partner of Fulcrum Global Capital.

With this round of funding, Sabanto will accelerate its mission to make autonomy an affordable, reliable, and scalable solution for all farmers throughout the world. This capital will also allow the company to increase its Farming-as-a-Service operations to more farmers, on more crops, over more acres, across more states.

About Fulcrum Global Capital

Fulcrum Global Capital (FGC) is an early-stage venture capital fund investing in companies and entrepreneurs disrupting the global food production industry through the agriculture, animal health, and agtech markets. FGC is especially interested in companies with technologies and approaches that increase yields, reduce food waste, and/or make food safer. Based out of the Kansas City area, FGC invests both within the U.S. and across the globe. More information on FGC can be found at https://www.fgcvc.com.

About DCVC Bio

For over twenty years, DCVC and its principals have backed brilliant entrepreneurs applying Deep Tech, from the earliest stage and beyond, to tackle previously unsolvable problems pragmatically and cost-effectively in nearly every industry. DCVC Bio specializes in supporting life sciences platform companies at the intersections of engineering and therapeutics, industrial biotechnology, and agriculture. For more information, please visit https://www.dcvc.com/companies.html#dcvc-bio.

About Hico Capital

Hico Capital is a subsidiary of SK Networks, founded in Silicon Valley in 2020 to facilitate investment in promising future high-tech businesses and expand local networks. The subsidiary has invested in Standard Cognition, Mycoworks, and others.

About Yara Growth Ventures

Yara Growth Ventures is the venture investment team within Yara International ASA, investing in disruptive startups in the agri-food industry globally to advance sustainability. Learn more at https://www.yaragrowthventures.com.

About Cavallo Ventures

Cavallo Ventures is the VC arm of Wilbur-Ellis, enabling innovative technology across all four divisions and markets of Wilbur-Ellis globally. Cavallo employs a hands-on approach to building companies, directly involved in setting the company’s strategy, recruiting key executives, and raising additional capital. Cavallo aims to deliver value through active collaboration with its strategic partners and network. Learn more at https://www.cavallovc.com.

About Johnsonville Ventures

Johnsonville Holdings works in concert with Johnsonville Sausage, a leading global brand of sausage sold in over 50 countries. Based in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, Johnsonville Ventures invests in early to mid-stage companies in consumer food, life sciences, ag & food tech, and emerging technologies. We connect our portfolio companies with our resources to expand markets, accelerate growth, and provide learning opportunities for our members.

About Trimble Ventures

Trimble Ventures, Trimble’s (NASDAQ: TRMB) corporate venture capital fund, focuses on investing in early and growth-stage companies that align with Trimble’s mission of transforming work in the agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation industries. The fund deploys strategic capital to accelerate the growth of innovative companies and partners that complement Trimble’s products, technology platforms and support its customer’s work. Trimble Ventures invests in companies with technologies and solutions related to hardware and software applications; artificial intelligence; augmented, virtual and mixed reality; autonomy and robotics; blockchain; the Internet of Things (IoT) and analytics; and sustainability. For more information on Trimble Ventures, visit:  ventures.trimble.com.

About Sabanto

Headquartered in Chicago, Sabanto’s mission is to accelerate autonomy in agricultural machinery to solve two primary problems: (i) the increasingly acute scarcity of labor in rural areas and (ii) ever-increasing capital expenses for modern ag machinery.  Sabanto’s core competency revolves around low-cost retrofits of existing agriculture machinery regardless of make or model, along with the development of necessary supporting software to maximize the utility of autonomous technology, thereby increasing producer ROI. Learn more at https://sabantoag.com.

SOURCE Sabanto, Inc.